Planning, SDGs and digital panchayats: GPDP, PAI, e-Gram Swaraj and SVAMITVA

Detail

1. Constitutional base for planning by panchayats

• Article 243G (added by the 73rd Amendment, 1992): the state legislature may give panchayats powers to:
• prepare plans for economic development and social justice; and

• carry out schemes, including those on the 29 subjects in the Eleventh Schedule.

• Eleventh Schedule: the list of 29 subjects that can be handed to panchayats, such as agriculture, drinking water, rural roads, primary education and health.

• Sabki Yojana Sabka Vikas tries to bring together all panchayat-level resources linked to these 29 subjects [7].

• Article 243G is the legal base of the Gram Panchayat Development Plan [9].

• District Planning Committee (DPC), Article 243ZD: a body in every district that combines the panchayat plans and the municipal plans into one draft district development plan.
• Both Article 243G and Article 243ZD are "may/shall" duties that states must put into practice through their own laws. The urban side is covered in urban-local-government.

2. Decentralised planning: from Kerala to the GPDP

Decentralised planning means that plans are made from the bottom up (village → block → district) instead of being handed down from the state capital.

Kerala's People's Plan Campaign (1996)

• People's Plan Campaign: Kerala's 1996 drive to let local bodies plan their own development.
• Money: about 35-40% of the state's Ninth Plan (1997-2002) outlay went to local bodies.
• Method, step by step:
• gram sabhas listed local needs;
• development seminars turned those needs into project ideas;

• trained volunteer resource persons helped panchayats write the plans.

• Why it matters: it is the model that later national campaigns copied.

Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP), from 2015

• GPDP: an annual plan that every gram panchayat (GP) makes through its gram sabha (the meeting of all adult voters of the village).
• Why 2015: the 14th Finance Commission (2015-20) grants began to go directly to GPs. Panchayats then needed a plan to spend this money.
• Money it brings together (convergence):
• the GP's own funds (taxes, fees);
• Finance Commission grants;

• scheme funds: MGNREGA (rural job guarantee), SBM-G (Swachh Bharat Mission–Gramin) and NRLM (National Rural Livelihoods Mission, for women's self-help groups).

• Higher tiers: blocks make a Block Panchayat Development Plan (BPDP) and districts make a District Panchayat Development Plan (DPDP) [9].

• The Class 6 NCERT chapter shows the panchayat samiti (block level) putting together the plans of its gram panchayats.

"Sabki Yojana Sabka Vikas": People's Plan Campaign (PPC), since 2 October 2018

• This national campaign runs every year from 2 October (Gandhi Jayanti). Its aim is to get special gram sabhas to prepare the next year's plan [7].
• PPC 2025-26 began on 2 October 2025 in all States and UTs. It prepares the Panchayat Development Plans for FY 2026-27 [8].
• Gram sabhas now review earlier GPDPs on digital tools such as eGramSwaraj, the Meri Panchayat app and Panchayat NIRNAY [8].
• Panchayat NIRNAY: a portal for scheduling and recording gram sabha meetings [9].

• Other tools named by MoPR: the Vibrant Gram Sabha portal and Sabha Saar, a tool that writes summaries of gram sabha meetings [9].

• Known weaknesses:

• copy-paste or template plans, where the same list of works is reused across villages;
• low gram sabha attendance, especially of women and SC/ST members, so plans reflect a few voices (verify current studies).

3. Localisation of SDGs (LSDGs)

• Localisation of Sustainable Development Goals: taking the UN's 17 global SDGs (2015-2030) and turning them into local goals that a panchayat can act on.
• The Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) groups them into nine LSDG themes:

#	Theme
1	Poverty-free and enhanced livelihoods panchayat
2	Healthy panchayat
3	Child-friendly panchayat
4	Water-sufficient panchayat
5	Clean and green panchayat
6	Panchayat with self-sufficient infrastructure
7	Socially just and socially secured panchayat
8	Panchayat with good governance
9	Women-friendly panchayat

• Each GP picks themes and builds its GPDP around them. The plan and the SDGs are therefore linked.

4. Panchayat Advancement Index (PAI)

• PAI: a score card that rates every GP on the nine LSDG themes. It was earlier called the Panchayat Development Index (PDI).
• Design: a composite index built from 435 local indicators (331 mandatory + 104 optional) and 566 data points, matched to the National Indicator Framework (NIF) that MoSPI uses to track the SDGs [4].
• Grade bands [4][5]:

Category	Score	Grade
Achiever	90-100	A+
Front Runner	75 to below 90	A
Performer	60 to below 75	B
Aspirant	40 to below 60	C
Beginner	below 40	D

Baseline PAI 2022-23 (released April 2025)

• 2,16,285 of 2,55,699 GPs submitted validated data [4].
• No GP reached Achiever.
• 699 Front Runners (0.3%): Gujarat 346, Telangana 270 [4].
• 77,298 Performers (35.8%), 1,32,392 Aspirants (61.2%) and 5,896 Beginners (2.7%) [4].
• Reading: most GPs (over 60%) were in the "Aspirant" band, which shows wide gaps in services.

PAI 2.0 for 2023-24 (released 24 April 2026, National Panchayati Raj Day)

• Record participation of 97.3%: 2,59,867 GPs/Traditional Local Bodies in 33 States/UTs [5].
• 3,635 Front Runners, about five times the baseline [5].
• 1,18,824 Performers (45.72%) [5].
• Strongest themes: poverty-free and enhanced livelihoods, and healthy panchayat [5].
• Chhattisgarh had 100% panchayat participation [6].
• Traditional Local Bodies: village councils in Sixth Schedule and other excluded areas, where Part IX does not fully apply. They are included in PAI 2.0 [5].

National Panchayat Awards

• These awards are now aligned to the LSDG themes (verify current categories).
• Earlier scheme: the Class 9 NCERT chapter mentions Jethipura (gram sabha award, 2019) and South Manubankul, which won under the older award categories.

5. Digital panchayats: e-Gram Swaraj and allied tools

• e-Gram Swaraj (launched 24 April 2020): one web portal for a panchayat's whole work cycle:
• planning (uploading the GPDP);
• progress reporting on works;
• financial management and work-based accounting;
• a record of assets created [10];

• online payments to vendors (through PFMS-linked transfers).

• Purpose: transparency. Citizens can see what was planned, spent and built [10].

• Companion tools:
• AuditOnline: online audit of panchayat accounts.
• Meri Panchayat app: a mobile app that shows citizens their GP's plans and spending [8].

6. SVAMITVA: property rights in village abadi land

• SVAMITVA (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas):
• launched on 24 April 2020 (National Panchayati Raj Day) [2];

• nationwide from 24 April 2021.

• Problem it solves: in many states, abadi land (the inhabited core of a village, with houses) was never surveyed. Owners had no legal document for their homes.

• Main aim: to give a Record of Rights, a legal document showing who owns which property, to owners in rural inhabited areas [2].

• How it works: 1. Drones and CORS (Continuously Operating Reference Stations), fixed GPS base stations that make the maps accurate to a few centimetres, map the abadi area [2]. 2. MoPR pays the Survey of India for the drone survey and map-making [2]. 3. States/UTs check the maps on the ground ("ground truthing"), then prepare and hand out property cards [2].

• Benefits:

• Bank credit: the card can be used to get a loan against the house.
• Fewer disputes: state reports show that cards have reduced property disputes [2].
• Wider property-tax base for GPs: clear records let panchayats assess and collect house tax. This strengthens their own-source revenue under Article 243H.

• Accurate maps are also useful for GPDP planning.

• Milestone: on 18 January 2025, the Prime Minister distributed over 65 lakh property cards on a single day [11].

• Progress as on 11 March 2026 [2][3]:
• drone survey done in 3.29 lakh of 3.44 lakh targeted villages;
• 3.10 crore cards prepared for 1.87 lakh villages;

• 2.65 crore cards distributed (verify current).

• Pre-digital contrast: the Class 6 NCERT chapter shows the patwari (village land-records officer) measuring land with maps that are generations old. SVAMITVA replaces this with drone-made digital maps.

Prelims Hooks

• Article 243G gives panchayats the power to plan for "economic development and social justice". Article 243ZD creates the District Planning Committee.
• GPDP began in 2015, linked to the 14th Finance Commission's direct grants to GPs. Sabki Yojana Sabka Vikas has run every year since 2 October 2018.
• Kerala's People's Plan Campaign (1996) gave about 35-40% of Ninth Plan outlay to local bodies.
• The nine LSDG themes include "women-friendly" and "child-friendly". Trap: there is no separate "education" or "digital" theme.
• PAI = formerly the Panchayat Development Index. It uses 435 indicators matched to MoSPI's National Indicator Framework.
• PAI baseline 2022-23: zero Achievers and 699 Front Runners, led by Gujarat (346). PAI 2.0 (2023-24): 3,635 Front Runners and 97.3% participation.
• 24 April links several facts: 73rd Amendment in force (1993), National Panchayati Raj Day, launch of e-Gram Swaraj and SVAMITVA (2020), and release of PAI 2.0 (2026).
• SVAMITVA uses drones + CORS. The Survey of India does the mapping and States issue cards. It covers abadi (inhabited) land, not farmland.

Mains Points

• Planning without power: Article 243G is only enabling. GPDPs depend on scheme money that comes with conditions attached, so local choice stays small.

• Reform: more untied funds, real devolution of the 29 subjects (funds, functions and functionaries), and working DPCs, which many states have not set up properly.

• Quality of participation: template plans and thin gram sabha turnout weaken bottom-up planning.

• Suggestions: fixed gram sabha calendars (Panchayat NIRNAY), women's and ward sabhas before the main gram sabha, and social audit of the GPDP.

• Measuring to improve: PAI turns the SDGs into village targets and enables competitive and cooperative federalism at the local level.

• Limits: data is self-reported, so quality varies; data-strong states lead (Gujarat, Telangana).

• Fix: third-party checks of the data and stronger GP data capacity.

• SVAMITVA and fiscal decentralisation: property cards unlock rural credit and widen the GP property-tax base, which addresses the weak own-revenue of panchayats.

• Risks: mistakes in ground truthing, exclusion of people without papers (tenants, women co-owners), and disputes moving from the village to the courts.
• Needs: legal backing for the cards in state land laws, and joint titles for women.